William Vahey: Parents to meet police and NSPCC

Parents of pupils at Southbank International School in London, where convicted
paedophile William Vahey taught, will meet with police, NSPCC and child
protection officers

Parents of children at Southbank International School, left, where convicted paedophile William Vahey, right, taught will meet with police and the NSPCC on Monday

By Claire Duffin, and agencies

10:38PM BST 26 Apr 2014

Parents of children at a school where convicted paedophile William Vahey taught will meet with police and the NSPCC on Monday.

American Vahey, 64, killed himself last month after the FBI found images of at least 90 boys aged between 12 and 14 on his computer. They appeared to have been drugged.

Vahey taught history and geography at the Southbank International School in London from 2009 to 2013.

The school's chair of governors, Sir Chris Woodhead, said on Saturday that there would be a meeting for parents with police as well as officers from Westminster council’s child protection team.

Sir Chris, the former chief inspector of Ofsted, said: "The main anxiety of parents is predictable, they want information as soon as possible about whether there are images of their children discovered on Vahey's computer.”

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Meanwhile, one of Vahey’s former students claimed three of his pupils had committed suicide after being abused by him. The woman, called Alicia, was taught by Vahey in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.

She said she did not have any suspicions about Vahey at the time but heard rumours about him after she had left school.

She told Sky News: “…later on, when we would have reunions ... that certain people in my circle, there were three suicides of very popular students of his that were molested by him.

"That was the rumour: that Bill Vahey molested children and that ultimately three children had committed suicide as a result.

When asked to clarify the rumour, Alicia said: "It's not a rumour. I mean, I know these people."

Vahey killed himself in Minnesota last month, aged 64, after police filed a warrant to examine his computer drive.

The memory stick was later found to contain images of boys who appeared to have been drugged.

The photos were catalogued with dates and locations that corresponded with overnight trips Vahey had taken with students since 2008.

He had been jailed in California in 1969 for child molestation but went on to teach at schools around the world, including Southbank, a fee paying school.

It appears that he failed to sign the sexual offenders' register, which allowed him to slip through the net and go on to work in Caracas, Jakarta, Dhahran in Saudi Arabia, Tehran and Ahwaz in Iran, Athens, Madrid and Beirut.

Vahey was working in Nicaragua when he was exposed in March by his employer who discovered the digitised images, the FBI said.

He confessed he had preyed on boys his entire life, giving them sleeping pills prior to the molestation.

In a letter to parents on Friday, Graham Lacey, executive principal at Southbank, urged any pupils who had experienced anything disturbing to come forward.

He wrote: "As a staff we feel upset, angry and betrayed. We can only imagine what you as parents must feel."

The letter added details of the checks that were made when Vahey joined the school, when he was subject to a Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) check, which is standard procedure and revealed nothing untoward.

A second check, three years later, produced similarly positive results and Mr Lacey added that three references the school obtained were "outstanding" and "specifically stated that there were no safeguarding issues".

Mr Lacey said he was an "extremely popular teacher" and several parents had even expressed their sadness about his leaving the school.

He said there had been one incident that occurred, which was investigated by school management at the time, but both the parents and the child stated they did not want to pursue the matter any further.

Scotland Yard has said it is helping the FBI with its inquiries.

A spokesman has said: "Officers from the sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse investigation team are assessing and evaluating intelligence passed to the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) by US authorities, and actively seeking any evidence whilst working with partner agencies to ensure that potential victims are supported."